RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.nysun.com/foreign/showdown-brews-between-obama-congress-over/87849/

A showdown is brewing in Washington over how the number of Palestinian Arab refugees is being counted, and it could be explosive. This is because numerical accuracy would undermine claims by the Palestinians that before long, if their demands are not granted, Jews will become a demographic minority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

Arithmetical distortions by the Palestinian Arabs have mesmerized the United Nations, the State Department, NGOs whose identities derive from the Palestinian determination to be permanent victims, and Israeli politicians who eagerly incorporate Palestinian misinformation into their critique of Jewish settlements.

Upon completion of the first Palestinian census 15 years ago, the head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics conceded that it was “a civil intifada,” a demographic weapon against Israel that specifically targeted Jewish settlers. Last December the Bureau fired its guns once again, reporting that 2.6 million Palestinian Arabs inhabit Judea and Samaria, the biblical homeland of the Jewish people where more than 300,000 Israelis now live.

These inflated Palestinian numbers have been sharply challenged by Israeli demographer Yoram Ettinger, who labels them “demographic misrepresentations.” According to his data the PCBS has inflated the number of West Bank Arabs (actually 1.6 million) by 66%. Its estimate includes more than 400,000 overseas residents (a violation of international demographic standards), a “double count” of 240,000 Jerusalem Arabs, and under-reported Palestinian emigration.

Mr. Ettinger’s calculations indicate that Jews now make up 17% of the total population of the West Bank (while Arabs make up 20% of the Israeli population.) Between the Jordan and Mediterranean, two-thirds of the population is Jewish. Since 1995 Arab birth rates have stabilized while annual Jewish births have risen significantly. “There is a demographic problem,” Mr. Ettinger concedes, “but there is no demographic machete at the throat of the Jewish state.”

The flip–side of Palestinian demographic distortion is the persistent claim that 5 million homeless “refugees,” scattered throughout the world, enjoy the right of return to their lost homeland (Israel). The United Nations Relief and Works Agency was established in 1948 to provide support for the 750,000 Palestinians (some 30,000 of whom are still living) who lost their homes during Israel’s war of independence in 1948 and either chose to leave or were forced out. It has fed Palestinian grievances by deciding that all 5 million descendants of the original refugees are also eligible for support, now amounting to $1.23 billion annually.

The State Department has long been complicit in this charade. Senator Kirk, a Republican of Illinois, recently inserted in the State Department funding bill an amendment to require the department to provide Congress with the number of Palestinians physically displaced from their homes in 1948, and the number of their descendants administered by UNRWA.

In a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides responded that Kirk’s “proposed amendment would be viewed around the world as the United States acting to prejudge and determine the outcome of this sensitive issue.” The last thing the State Department seems to want is for a decision about American aid to Palestinians, now $400 million annually, to be based on documented evidence of refugee status. This could be embarassing, especially when the Palestinian Authority spends more than $5 million monthly in American funding for the salaries it pays to 5,500 convicted and alleged terrorists imprisoned in Israel

The Kirk amendment has been approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. But even if Congress ratifies it (unlikely) and President Obama does not veto it (unimaginable), final funding decisions will still rest with the UN.

Human rights organizations compete to provide aid to Palestinians living under Israeli “occupation.” The New Israel Fund, B’tselem, Peace Now, and the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, among an array of like-minded groups, would have many fewer causes to pursue – and to sustain their own organizations – if Palestinians were removed from their roster of victims. As Seth Frantzman wrote in the Jerusalem Post, “the occupation is their raison d’etre and without it they cannot exist.” CONTINUE READING AT SITE

http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2012/6/6/main-feature/1/the-six-day-war-day-two/e

This week, Jewish Ideas Daily commemorates the forty-fifth anniversary of the Six-Day War with a day-by-day synopsis, for which we are indebted to Michael Oren’s comprehensive Six Days of War. Below, the third of a seven-part series. Read parts I and II.

In the Sinai, Israeli aircraft commanded the skies and the IDF advanced along roads littered with Egyptian tanks. Some were in flames, illuminating the darkness; others were simply immobilized by malfunctions in their Soviet-made engines, which had failed in desert conditions. On June 6th, 1967, by 8:00 a.m. Tel Aviv time, Israeli forces had entered el-Arish. It initially seemed desolate, but the Israelis were soon under fire from every window. Israel’s leadership, not expecting the war to move so quickly, had not considered what do to beyond el-Arish. The IDF’s challenge became keeping up with the retreating Egyptian forces.

Meanwhile, Gaza had been severed from Sinai. Though Defense Minister Moshe Dayan had predicted that this move would cripple the Strip, fighting was heavy; Gaza would ultimately account for nearly half of all the war’s Israeli casualties. Still, Dayan’s prediction was correct: Gaza was taken by mid-morning.

Yet, even as Egyptian anti-aircraft gun barrels melted from the continuous, unsuccessful efforts against Israeli planes, more than half of Egypt’s forces were intact. Some important detachments had yet to see action. Pilots remained available. Forty-eight Algerian aircraft were en route, along with volunteers from Morocco, Tunisia, and Sudan. Expressions of support poured in from Arab sympathizers. By contrast, Israel’s forces were exhausted from over 24 hours of non-stop combat and were low on fuel and ammunition.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303918204577444223973899782.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Roosevelt’s address stands as a testament to how much our nation has changed since that evening in the late spring of 1944.

Franklin Roosevelt is not remembered for his religious dogma. Yet 68 years ago on the night of June 6, as tens of thousands of American and Allied forces were flung into a caldron of fire in Western Europe, the president and commander in chief sought to calm an anxious nation as he spoke to his people. It was a presidential address that stands out as a testament to how much our nation has changed since that evening in the late spring of 1944.

Beginning around midnight the night before, elements of the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions had landed behind enemy lines in France. They were followed seven hours later by massive landings on beaches in Normandy code-named Sword, Juneau, Gold, Omaha and Utah.Americans began hearing special reports in the middle of the night and they continued to follow events closely throughout the day. At lunch counters and in offices and factories, people clustered around their radios. So it was both natural and necessary that the president say something.

Yet instead of giving a news account—something Americans had already heard from network radio news and read in their evening papers—Franklin Roosevelt chose a different course. He led the nation in prayer.

“Almighty God,” Roosevelt began, “Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.”Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.”

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304203604577398541135969380.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

As austerity bites into European living standards, sparking revolt at the polls, “growth” has become the politician’s mantra. But to be competitive, European countries require a secure, plentiful and competitively priced energy supply. Unless Europe radically rethinks its obsession with carbon-dioxide emissions and the anti-fossil fuel energy policies that flow from it, growth is likely to remain elusive.

European Union law mandates that the 27 member countries on average cut their C02 emissions 20% by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. The goal after that is to cut emissions by between 80% and 95% by 2050. In May 2010, a study by the European Commission’s energy department estimated the 20% cut would cost 48 billion euros ($66.3 billion) a year. The Commission’s draft Energy Roadmap for 2050 is frank: “There is a trade-off between climate change policies and competitiveness.”

There is indeed. The consultancy Verso Economics has calculated the opportunity cost of the United Kingdom’s subsidy system for renewables to be 10,000 jobs between 2009 and 2010 alone. A report by the Energy Intensive Users Group (which represents energy-intensive British businesses) and the Trades Union Congress cited steel making, ceramics, paper, cement and lime manufacture, aluminum and basic inorganic chemicals as industries facing up to 141% in additional energy costs by 2020 as a result of C02 emissions-reduction schemes. EIUG Director Jeremy Nicholson notes that “the current policies do seem to be angled towards creating a market for overseas competitors.”

Emissions-free solar and wind energy, on which the U.K. plans increasingly to rely, are expensive. The government estimates that a planned offshore wind farm project ringing the coast will cost £140 billion, or £5,600 ($8,972) for every household in the country. Conventional energy could provide the same amount of energy at 5% of the cost.

The U.K.’s Department of Energy and Climate Change commissioned a report (led by Prof. John Hills of the London School of Economics) to examine the issue of “fuel poverty,” defined as when fuel bills take up more than 10% of household income. It found four million of England’s 21.5 million households fall in this category and the number could rise to 9.2 million by 2016, equivalent to 43% of all homes in England. One of the key factors are green taxes and levies expected to add up to £200 ($306) to bills by 2020.

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=2002

Decapitating democracy

It’s old news by now that the so-called Arab Spring was literally and figuratively sparked by a street vendor in Tunisia.The self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in front of a government building took place in December 2010, a mere year and a half ago. It feels much longer, due to the great deal that has happened since then.

But time flies when you’re having fun. And the Middle East has been one big party for the last 18 months, with much fanfare and fireworks. That this bash has been characterized by the uncorking of Shariah, not champagne, and that blood is flowing instead of bubbly, is beside the point, according to many cautiously optimistic analysts. It took a century for the French Revolution to produce democracy, they argue. And what’s a hundred years in the grand scheme of things?

Such a take on the radical Islamization of every country in our neighborhood may or may not be justified in the distant future, though none of us will be alive to see how it all turned out. Either we’ll have been killed by the sword or died of old age. In the meantime, however, what we’ve been witnessing is an eerie repeat of the Islamic Revolution — the one that took place in Iran in 1979, with the toppling of the autocratic shah and the rise of the Muslim monster, Ayatollah Khomeini.

Though it is understandable that the French Revolution has come to mind in relation to the goings-on in the Arab-Muslim world — where decapitation is alive and well — even the barbaric act of beheading was conducted differently in France.

http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2012/6/5/main-feature/1/the-six-day-war-day-one/e

This week, Jewish Ideas Daily commemorates the forty-fifth anniversary of the Six-Day War with a day-by-day synopsis, for which we are indebted to Michael Oren’s comprehensive Six Days of War. Below, the second of a seven-part series. Read part I here.

As the sun rose on June 5th, 1967, squadrons of Egypt’s MiG fighter jets took to the skies for their morning patrols. Fearing that an Israeli attack would begin at dawn, their aim was to be ready to meet any Israeli planes. With an air force twice the size of Israel’s, consisting of over 400 modern combat aircraft (supplied by the USSR), they were more than a match for their adversary in the air. But finding everything quiet that morning, they returned to base for breakfast. At bases from the Sinai down to Luxor, the most powerful air force in the region stood inert on the tarmac, without even hangars for protection.

Unbeknownst to the Egyptians, the Israelis were wise to their daily routine. They had gathered intelligence not only on every Egyptian jet, but on every pilot, down to the sound of his voice. This intelligence was the basis of “Operation Focus”: the plan, revealed to only a handful of ministers, to attack the Egyptian air force at its most vulnerable. Still, no one expected what was to follow.

At 7:10 a.m., the Israeli Air Force set off for what looked like routine patrols. But although the planes appeared to be Mirage jets, they were in fact no more than a mirage: the real fighter jets, flying below radar detection, were about to begin the assault on Egypt’s airfields. Some flew out into the Mediterranean, to come back around to hit targets from Al-Mansura in the north, to Cairo, and still further to Al-Minya in the south. Others flew south over the Negev before turning east to hit targets across the Sinai peninsula. Still others continued on over the Red Sea, on their way to Luxor.

http://times247.com/   Obama’s order larded with ‘globalist gobbledygook’ Townhall Tuesday, June 5, 2012 Commentary One of the biggest issues in the November election is whether we will continue or stop President Obama’s move toward restricting U.S. sovereignty and rushing down the road to global governance Read more… Read more: http://times247.com/#ixzz1wuqZJS3m   BOLTON: Baghdad dreaming   […]

ICE Deports Gang Member Wanted for Murder – Again http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/ice-deports-gang-member-wanted-for-murder-again Today’s commentary is based on an article I recently wrote for the CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization website). My CAPS article was, itself, prompted by a news release that was posted on May 24, 2012 by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) that touted the arrest […]

A Gift from the Religion of Atrocity

URL to article: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/06/05/a-gift-from-the-religion-of-atrocity/

Reprinted from Gates of Vienna.

An article in this morning’s Sunday Times about female genital mutilation in the UK has been much discussed today in Britain. Our English correspondent Seneca III presents a summary of the article, and adds his own thoughts on the whole sordid matter.

The leading article in today’s Sunday Times is a story of more cultural enrichment. Essentially, it reports on an undercover investigation into the extent of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Britain.

And, as ‘thetimesonline.com’ is behind a subscription firewall and cannot be linked, here follows a short review/synopsis with some comments from me connecting the quotations and elaborating in a politically incorrect manner in a couple of places (direct quotations from the ST are in italics).

Forward, a charity that campaigns against FGM, revealed this weekend that 100,000 women in Britain have undergone mutilation. A further 24,000* girls are thought to be at risk of suffering the agonising procedure**.

Such acts which are widespread in parts of Africa*** and the Middle East are illegal in Britain.

* Estimates place the worldwide figure at 140 million — guess where most of them are (apart from those now setting up their occupied territories in Europe and the USA)?

** I will include no details here. It is Sunday, and even after so many years of exposure to the ideological root causes of this atrocity, those years have still have not inured me to the horrors of this and all the other joys of Sharia.

*** The ST did state “Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia”(Whereas they didn’t actually clarify the Ogaden region of Ethiopia that is tribally and culturally Somali Muslim as opposed to the Christian North, or Islamic North Sudan as opposed to the Christian and Animist South. Those areas in fact long conquered and subjugated by The Religion of Peace.)

The Long-Delayed Trial of the Fort Hood Terrorist http://frontpagemag.com/2012/06/05/the-long-delayed-trial-of-the-fort-hood-terrorist/print/ It’s around 5,000 miles from El-Bireh, a dirty little administrative center for the Palestinian Authority bureaucracy, to Kileen, Texas. A year after Nidal Hasan opened fire in Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding 29, a public square in El-Bireh was dedicated to Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist […]